How to Save A Life: Telehealth Innovation and the Department of Veterans Affairs

Written by: Techsource Editor on Feb 08 2017

By Shannon Leininger, Cisco Director of Operations

A U.S. soldier has just returned home from deployment. The past years of his life have been structured and strenuous, and he begins to notice that he is having trouble readjusting to the civilian lifestyle. The veteran is plagued with crippling fear and paranoia and struggles to socialize. The isolation leads to feelings of depression, and this struggling victim wonders whether life will ever feel “normal” again.

These are some of the symptoms that come with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a common disease that often affects warfighters after returning home. If not treated, PTSD can often prove dangerous to both the lives of the victims and their loved ones.

Unfortunately, this mental illness brings with it a great deal of difficulty in seeking help. Sufferers often find they are unable to leave their home, ruling out both doctor and therapy appointments. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is working to reverse what could be a dire situation, by bringing healthcare to veterans in need.

The term telehealth is defined as the use of technologies to provide clinical care in circumstances where distance separates those receiving services and those providing them. This means patients can receive the care they require via screens, sensors and the like, all from the comfort of their home.

Recognizing the need for accessibility and ease-of-use within its unique (and often rural) patient population, the VA continues to lead in the adoption and expansion of telehealth offerings. This technology can increase veterans’ well-being, no matter the situation. For those suffering from PTSD, for example, therapy via telehealth could be the difference between life and death by suicide.

But how is telehealth made possible? A level of healthcare that once didn’t even seem imaginable is now becoming the standard – and fast. Telehealth offerings must be supported from an IT standpoint, starting with infrastructure. Cisco technology can improve access to telehealth not only through this infrastructure support, but also by offering mobility solutions to make face-to-face contact between doctor and patient possible.

While the underlying IT infrastructure support and tools are key to making telehealth a continued reality in the VA and beyond, it is also necessary that doctors understand how to use the tools they are given to make telehealth a success. This is why Iron Bow has created the Telehealth Education Delivered vehicle – TED for short.

TED is on a journey across the United States, serving as an educational tool. The vehicle is teaching doctors, nurses and administrators as it showcases technologies that enable telehealth in many clinical areas such as mental health, surgery, wound care, primary care and more. This tool is prompting healthcare professionals to not only recognize the benefits of telehealth but also to show them how to properly leverage the technology and capabilities it provides.

When it comes supporting the VA’s telehealth offerings, the most important thing that we can continue to do is keep the focus on the veterans and their most basic needs. At the end of the day, IT professionals may get distracted by the technical aspects of their job, but it is key to remember that our mission is in improving quality of life.

It’s all about helping people, and we should strive to look at IT from a veteran/caregiver perspective in order to enhance experiences on both ends to provide better access to care and, in turn, a healthy, happy life.

Archives

Iron Bow Technologies ("Iron Bow") is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you have a positive experience on our websites and in using our products and services ("Solution" or "Solutions"). This Privacy Statement applies to Iron Bow websites that link to this Statement, but does not apply to those Iron Bow websites that have their own privacy statement. Our personal information handling practices are described below, in the supplements on the right, and in notices at the point of collection.

Collection of Your Personal Information

We will inform you of the purpose for collecting personal information when we collect it from you and keep it to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, as required by applicable laws or for legitimate purposes. "Personal information" is any information that can be used to identify an individual, and may include name, address, email address, phone number, or payment card number. We collect personal information (and engage third parties to collect personal information to assist us) for a variety of reasons, such as:

Processing your order.

Providing you with a newsletter subscription.

Enabling the use of certain features of our Solutions.

Personalizing your experience.

Managing a job application.

Collecting information during the testing admissions process when a computer-based certification test is administered to you.

We and the third parties we engage may combine the information we collect from you over time and across our websites with information obtained from other sources. This helps us improve its overall accuracy and completeness, and also helps us better tailor our interactions with you.

If you choose to provide third party personal information (such as name, email, and phone number), we will assume that you have the third party's permission to provide us with the information. Examples include forwarding reference material to a friend or job referrals. This information will not be used for any other purpose.

In some instances, Iron Bow may collect non-personal (aggregate or demographic) data through cookies, web logs, web beacons, and other similar applications. This information is used to better understand and improve the usability, performance, and effectiveness of the website. Please read the "Cookies" section below for more information. In addition, by using some of our Solutions, anonymous network information may be transmitted to us such as the performance of the Solution and types of devices attached to the network. With this information, we can determine how users are interacting with the Solution, to assist us with improving it, to manage your network, and to provide alerts through the Solution on available software updates and upgrades.

Uses of Your Personal Information

We will only use your personal information in the way we specified when it was collected. We will not subsequently change the way your personal information is used without first asking for your permission. Some of the ways we may use personal information include:

Delivering a Solution you have requested

Supporting our Solutions

Contacting you for customer satisfaction surveys

Personalizing websites and newsletters to your preferences

Administering and processing your certification exams

Communicating for marketing purposes

You can edit your preferences at any time.

Access to and Accuracy of Your Personal Information

We need your help in keeping your personal information accurate and up to date, so please notify us of any changes to your personal information. To update your personal information and communication preferences, please contact us at marketing@ironbow.com.

We make good faith efforts to honor your reasonable request to access and correct your data if it is inaccurate, or delete the data if we are not required to retain it by law or for legitimate purposes. We will respond to your request to access data within 30 days.

Your Choices and Selecting Your Communication Preferences

We give you the choice of receiving a variety of information that complements our Solutions. You can manage your communication preferences and unsubscribe using one of the following methods:

Each promotional email from us includes instructions on how you can unsubscribe from that particular mailing.

Send us a message through electronic mail to marketing@ironbow.com or by mail to Iron Bow Technologies, 4800 Westfields Boulevard, Suite 300, Chantilly, VA 20151, USA. Please be sure to include your name, email address, and specific, relevant information about the material you no longer wish to receive.

These choices do not apply to the receipt of mandatory service communications that are considered part of certain Solutions, which you may receive periodically unless you cancel the Solution in accordance with its terms and conditions.

Sharing Your Personal Information

We do not sell or share your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes unless you have granted us permission to do so. We will ask for your consent before we use or share your information for any purpose other than the reason you provided it or as otherwise provided by this Privacy Statement. We may share personal information in the following ways:

Within Iron Bow for purposes of data processing or storage.

With business partners, service vendors, authorized third-party agents, or contractors to provide a requested service or transaction. This includes processing orders and credit card transactions, hosting websites, hosting seminar registration, and providing customer support. We only provide these third parties with the minimum amount of personal information necessary to complete or provide the requested service or transaction. We do not allow third parties to use your personal information for a different purpose.

To comply with the law or legal process (such as responding to subpoenas or court orders) and to exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.

To investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected or potential fraud (such as sales or use of Iron Bow's trademark without a license), situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Iron Bow's terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.

Security of Your Personal Information

We are committed to protecting the personal information you share with us and utilize a combination of industry-standard security technologies, procedures, and organizational measures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. We recommend you to take every precaution in protecting your personal information when you are on the Internet. For example, change your passwords often, use a combination of letters and numbers when creating passwords, and make sure you use a secure browser. When you enter sensitive information on our forms, we encrypt this data using SSL or other technologies.

Retention of Personal Information

We will only retain your personal information to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or as required for legitimate purposes or permitted by law.

Use of Cookies and other Web Technologies

Like many websites, Iron Bow may use automatic data collection tools, such as cookies, embedded web links, and web beacons. These tools may collect certain standard information that your browser sends to our website such as your browser type and the address of the website from which you arrived at our website. They may also collect information about:

Your Internet Protocol (IP) address. This is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the web. It allows web servers to locate and identify your computer, which is a unique address assigned to your PC by your Internet service provider or information systems department on a TCP/IP network.

Clickstream behavior. For example, the pages you view and the links you click.

These tools help make your visit to our website easier, more efficient, and more valuable by providing you with a customized experience and recognizing you when you return.

Our website includes widgets, which are interactive mini-programs that run on our site to provide specific services from another company (such as displaying the news, opinions, music, and more). Personal information, such as your email address, may be collected through the widget. Cookies may also be set by the widget to enable it to function properly. Information collected by this widget is governed by the privacy policy of the company that created it. Our widget may have an import contacts feature to help you email your contacts. At your request, we will search your email address book to help you import your contacts to our website.

Some web browsers may give you the ability to enable a "do not track" feature that sends signals to the websites you visit, indicating that you do not want your online activities tracked. This is different than blocking or deleting cookies, as browsers with a "do not track" feature enabled may still accept cookies. There is currently no industry standard for how companies should respond to "do not track" signals, although one may develop in the future. We do not respond to "do not track" signals at this time. If we do so in the future, we will describe how in this Privacy Statement.

Linked Websites

We may provide links to other third-party websites and services that are outside our control and not covered by this Privacy Statement. We encourage you to review the privacy statements posted on those websites (and all websites) you visit.

Forums and Chat Rooms

If you participate in a discussion forum or chat room on an Iron Bow website, you should be aware that the information you provide there will be made broadly available to others, and can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, potentially inside or outside Iron Bow, who have access to that discussion forum or chat room. This information could also be used to send you unsolicited messages. Also, please recognize that individual forums and chat rooms may have additional rules and conditions. Each participant's opinion on a forum or chat room is his or her own and should not be considered as reflecting the opinion of Iron Bow. We are not responsible for the personal information or any other information you choose to submit in these forums.

Children's Privacy

Iron Bow does not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If we learn that we have collected personal information on a child under the age of 13, we will delete that data from our systems. Iron Bow encourages parents and guardians to go online with their children. Here are a few tips to help make a child's online experience safer:

Teach children never to give personal information (such as name, address, phone number, school, and other information) unless supervised by a parent or responsible adult.

Know the sites your children are visiting and which sites are appropriate.

Look for website privacy policies and know how your child's information is treated.

For more tips on protecting children's privacy online, please see the FTC website.

Consent to Transfer, Processing and Storage of Personal Information

Iron Bow may transfer your personal information to Iron Bow in the United States of America, to any Iron Bow subsidiary worldwide, or to third parties acting on our behalf, for the purposes of processing or storage. By providing any personal information to us, you fully understand and unambiguously consent to the transfer, processing, and storage of such information outside of your country of residence where data protection standards may be different. Our Privacy Statement and our practices are designed to provide a globally consistent level of protection for personal information all over the world. This means that even in countries whose laws provide for less protection for your information, Iron Bow will still handle your information in the manner described here.

Your California Privacy Rights

Residents of the State of California, under California Civil Code § 1798.83, have the right to request from companies conducting business in California a list of all third parties to which the company has disclosed personal information during the preceding year for direct marketing purposes. Alternatively, the law provides that if the company has a privacy policy that gives either an opt-out or opt-in choice for use of your personal information by third parties (such as advertisers) for marketing purposes, the company may instead provide you with information on how to exercise your disclosure choice options.

Iron Bow qualifies for the alternative option. We have a comprehensive privacy statement, and provide you with details on how you may either opt-out or opt-in to the use of your personal information by third parties for direct marketing purposes. Therefore, we are not required to maintain or disclose a list of the third parties that received your personal information for marketing purposes during the preceding year.

If you are a California resident and request information about how to exercise your third party disclosure choices, please contact us at marketing@ironbow.com.

How to Contact Us

We value your opinions. Should you have any privacy-related questions or comments related to this Privacy Statement, please electronic mail us at marketing@ironbow.com.

Updates to this Iron Bow Privacy Statement

We may update this Privacy Statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we change our Privacy Statement, we will post the revised version here, with an updated revision date. If we make significant changes to our Privacy Statement, we may also notify you by other means prior to the changes taking effect, such as sending an email or posting a notice on our website.